In July of 2008 I received my mission call to the greatest mission in the entire world; The Tennessee Nashville Mission....Spanish speaking?? Yes, that's right Spanish speaking in the South. The next 2 years of my life would be spent in the buckle of the Bible Belt. It was cool because I came to find out that the last member of my family to serve a mission there was William S. Berry, who died as a martyr for the church. I was going to finish what he had started.
On November 12, 2008 I was then shipped off to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT. It was really weird being back in Provo, not in school and as a missionary. It was a lot of fun to be in such a spiritual place. I was also able to see a lot of my close friends for the 9 weeks I was there. But as it is with any place, 9 weeks straight of being cooped up, I was ready to get to Nashville.
Nashville is an amazing place! Known as the music capital of the world and more specifically the country music capital of the world. The other interesting thing about the South is that it's a lot like Utah...seriously! Ok maybe not like all the Mormons but with all the chapels or churches you see on every street corner, exceopt this time it wasn't an LDS chapel on every corner, it was a diiferent church on every corner. Everything from Jehova's Witness, Baptist, Catholic, Church of Christ, Pentacostle, Presbyterian to even Scientologist. The Hispanic community was even beginning to catch on to this "bunch of different churches" movement that was going on. The Great Apostasy came to life right before my eyes. I must say one thing, even if they didn't have the fulness of the gospel, they did have some pretty awesome marquees!
When I got to Nashville, I was the only "Spanish speaking" missionary in the group. All of us "Greenies" arrived at the mission home that first night, met with the President and had a very spiritual testimony meeting. The next morning we got our trainers. Mine was Elder Santos. A huge MMA fighter from Spain. Needless to say for the next 3 months he whooped me into shape. He helped me so much to learn how to teach and how to speak Spanish, the only thing was I couldn't speak with the lisp that he did being from Spain. We covered a part of Nashville and all of the Hermitage area. It was a rough 3 months for me since I was still new and couldn't speak the language very well, but so it is with most missionaries.
After 3 months with Elder Santos I was shipped off to Shelbyville, TN with Elder Arroyo. Elder Arroyo was from Guadalajara, Mexico. He showed me what it meant to love our investigators.....and how to cook. Boy could Elder Arroyo cook. It seemed like I was banished to the middle of nowhere. We had to drive and hour to get to church every Sunday and it became very hard as well to get investigators to go as well with it being so far. We did have an awesome investigator by the name of Uncle Lee. Uncle Lee was the local judge of Bedford County. We called him Uncle Lee because he took care of us as if we were his own children. Uncle Lee didn't have children of his own nor was he married, so we were like his family. He was a devout Presbyterian/Episcopalian and said he's never get baptized. He read through Jesus the Christ and The Great Apostasy, both by Elder Talmage. When I left the area I came to find out he had taught the Elders Quorum lesson as a non-member. After 3 months, Elder Arroyo left and Elder Velazquez came. Elder Velazquez was a fairly new missionary from Chiappas, Mexico. He was also a professional soccer player who played for Real Salt Lake. What was interesting about Elder Velazquez was that he didn't speak very good English but tried to hard to get it, and in so doing he showed me perseverance. He was originally from Hermitage, TN and was baptized there as well as a convert. He moved to Utah to play soccer and received his mission call back to Tennessee. His first baptism was in the same font that he was baptized in. I was with Elder Velazquez for 1 1/2 months in Shelbyville, then we were both transferred. But that wasn't the last time I'd see him...
From there I was transferred all the way to Bowling Green, KY, home of the Corvette museum. I was the new District Leader and companions with Elder Allen from Pocatello, ID. Turns out Elder Allen was related to me through his uncle and my cousin who got married! Weird huh?? Elder Allen was probably the hardest working companion I had on my mission. This kid went a hundred mile an hour and never gave up. This was also probably my favorite area. This is where I started seeing success on my mission. It was definitely a breath of fresh air after the struggles from Shelbyville. I considered it a new start for me. This was where I was hit by a car on my bike and thrown into the middle of the street. I remember telling my Mission President and him saying, " Well Elder, you can cross that off your list of things to do on your mission." There it was just a small group of Hispanic people that we one day wanted to grow into a branch and eventually a ward. We would have combined sacrament with the white folks and we would translate for our Spanish members/investigators. But after 6 weeks I got a phone call that changed my mission...
I remember getting that call from President Hutchings and hearing him say that I was going to be one of the new Zone Leaders! I had been out for like a little over 6 months and was scared out of my mind! I was very sad to be leaving Bowling Green and all the great things that were beginning to happen there. But I was excited to go back to Nashville and for my new companion. Elder Martins was his name and he was from Rio de Janiero, Brazil/San Francisco, California. Elder Martins was the most spiritual companion I had throughout my mission. I had never seen a man so close to the Spirit before in my life. He taught me so much about relying on the Spirit and how to use it to convert others. This was where my mission really turned around. This is when the blessings of the Lord started to flood in. Elder Martins and I saw so much success and so many miracles that no blog will have enough space for the experiences. That part of my mission I hold dear and close to my heart. Elder Martins and I were together as ZLs for 4 1/2 months. After that I got Elder Goodman from Orange, California. Elder Goodman spoke Spanish like a native. He certainly helped me perfect my Spanish as he was a perfectionist with his. After 6 months as a ZL I got another call from President Hutchings, one that would send me back to the beginning of my mission...
I was going back to the same area where I started my mission. Back to the ghettos of Nashville. I went back to this newly reopened area as a District Leader, but this time with Elder Montgomery, a 27 year old from Huntington Beach, CA. Elder Montgomery showed me a lot about determination. He was a brand new missionary, only one transfer under his belt, but he was determined to speak Spanish to everyone. He was definitely there for the right reasons. It was weird being the older companion in my "greenie" area. I had never worked so hard in this area than I did in my whole mission. We didn't have a car and my companions didn't have bikes either so needless to say it was a lot of walking in that hot, humid southern summer weather. After one transfer, Elder Montgomery was transferred out and I was asked to train a brand new missionary. Tiny little Elder Morente from Shelbyville, KY/Guatemala. Elder Morente was a convert as well with a heart as big as my body. When he taught, he taught with power where the whole room was overflowing with the Spirit. We were quite the pair to be seen walking down the street as I was tall and he was well...not so tall. But teaching together we were powerful. I wasn't training him at times, I felt like he was teaching me things to help me later in my life. This area was like a trail by fire for me where we worked our butts off to only have a couple of baptisms. But those baptisms will forever be locked into my memories from my mission.
In May of 2010 a massive flood ravaged Nashville. The flood destroyed pretty much all of downtown and many of the surrounding areas. It was a great time to help neighboring churches that were affected by the flood. We also found some time to have a little bit of fun though.
After 3 months of being back in this area, another call from President Hutchings came, this time in the form of him taking me to a bishops office after one of our baptisms... He sat me down and told me he was calling me to be one of his APs. At first I didn't believe him. I thought I was scared when I became a ZL, try multiplying that by 1000! There were 3 of us. First it was Elder Jackson from West Valley City, UT and Elder Pearson from Bountiful, UT. They were both English Elders and I was the only Spanish one. Needless to say I felt out of place and way awkward when I had to teach in English after teaching in Spanish for so long. After one transfer Elder Jackson went home and Elder Wright from Riverton, UT took his place. This time as an AP was a lot of fun. I got to travel around the mission, going to many different zone conferences and doing trainings for missionaries I hadn't met. We had a lot of success as well in the area that we covered. We were required to watch over an area and take care of all the hundreds of things President Hutchings had us do. After 3 months though I was really missing the Spanish work. Yes I got to do splits with the Spanish ZLs but it just wasn't the same. President Hutchings pulled me into his office one day before transfers and asked me where I wanted to go to finish out my mission. He wanted me to stay there to finish up but at the same time he knew I missed the Spanish people. I told him I wanted to stay but my heart was with the Spanish people. That transfer I was sent back as a Spanish ZL...
I was back in the Spanish Zone to finish out my mission. My new companion was Elder Brown from Alpine, UT. He was an awesome Elder with a great heart. We saw lots of success as we tried to resurrect a zone that was full of brand new missionaries. For my last transfer we added Elder Velazquez again to the mix. We had so much fun together. We saw miracles and received so many blessings. I couldn't believe that this was the end. 2 years had come and gone just like that. It seemed like I just arrived to Nashville and now I was getting ready to leave. I served a total of 18 months in Nashville alone, with 4 1/2 in Shelbyville and 1 1/2 in Bowling Green. I will never forget the feelings, the blessings, the miracles, the friends made, the members, my companions, my Mission President and most importantly the relationship I developed with my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ. It truly was the best 2 years of my life... 2 years that I will never forget.
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